Guide Writing for Dummies

Somebody call 9-1-1: The Guide System's Vitals are Falling!

Ever since the Guide option became available for regular users to create and publish their own guides, there's been turmoil about formatting and content. It's not my place to say what material should or should not be allowed as a guide, but I can provide some assistance on...beautifying your guide, so to speak. Here, I've presented the BBCode Wowhead uses in a user-friendly manner (I hope). All of the different tags are organized into tables with examples and explanations of the code itself. Additionally, more in-depth explanations can be accessed for users who desire it on some of the more intricate code. The content ranges from bits of code that add small features, all the way up to intricate premade guide components for you to copy and paste your own content into, should you so wish. Check out the "Advanced Material" section for some cool ways to take your guide to the next level.

Please vote --> if you find this guide helpful, or leave comments below if you have suggestions on how to improve! I will check this daily and adjust the content of the guide accordingly.

Here are some of the biggest aspects to a guide:

Spelling and Grammar. If you don't spell properly, it decreases readability quickly. Copy and paste your guide into a Word document to run a spell-check before you submit. The first time any of the code pops up in the check, click "Ignore All" and you won't have to deal with repeatedly ignoring the same thing. Ask a friend to read through your guide to make sure the sentences flow well.

Clarity. Make sure your guide title and description clearly state what's in the guide. If you're going to use acronyms or words you don't think everyone will know, make sure you define them the first time they show up in your guide.

The Database. Wowhead isn't just a guide. Utilize links for spells, skills, NPCs, etc. to make sure your guide is as complete as possible.

Formatting. Hopefully this guide can help folks avoid the walls of text that make many guides imposing. Use the BBCode - it makes a decent guide great, and makes the difference in the guide's rating.

Information. A guide doesn't have to be all-inclusive, but it should be researched. Be an authority figure - saying "I'm not really sure how you do this" means you didn't look at the pages on Wowhead. Speculation = poor guide.

Imagination! A single type of coding can do wonders, but generally speaking, you're not limited. Putting tables into tabs or togglers can clean up a guide and organize the material better than just one or the other would. If you're thinking of playing around with formatting, make a separate draft guide for coding purposes. The risk to doing real harm to your actual guides decreases, and you can pull pieces in and out of a guide to work on things separately. Once you've got things how you like them, just paste it back into the real guide!

The Beginning of a Guide

Every guide should have an Introduction, however brief. Let users know what they'll find in the guide, or how it's formatted, or maybe even why it was written in the first place. It might also be useful to include something to remind users to comment and/or vote on the guide to encourage feedback.

A major requirement to every guide is a Table of Contents.

Tooltip

Use

Code

Example

Table of Contents

Creates a Table of Contents wherever the code is placed.

\\

To see examples of any of these,refer to this guide's Table of Contents.

The major bullets are \\

tags, while indented bullets are \\

tags.

Unlinked tags are visually the same,though they do not appear in the Table of Contents.

Heading

Creates a section heading that is linked to the Table of Contents,if one is present.

\\Heading\\

Subsection

Creates a subsection that is linked to the Table of Contents, if one is present.

\\Subsection\\

Un-linked Heading

Creates a section heading that is NOT linked to the Table of Contents.

\\

Heading\\

Un-linked Subsection

Creates a subsection that is NOT linked to the Table of Contents.

\\

Subsection\\

Tell Me More about Table of Contents Code

The Table of Contents will not only help organize the guide, but also allow players to quickly hone in on the material they've opened your guide to read. You could manually make your own Table of Contents, and have it link up with your headings, but a much more rapid approach is to use \\. Then, every time you want to use a heading in your guide, use the \\

Heading\\

tags. For a subsection, use \\

Subsection\\

tags. These will automatically work with your \\ to build the guide as you go. If you move or delete any of them, the Table of Contents will automatically update. Don't want a heading or subsection to be linked, but want the format? Use toc=false inside the opening tag (\\

Un-linked Heading\\

and \\

Un-linked Subsection\\

The Heart of a Guide

Tips on Content

This is the part that's up to the writer (I can't do everything for you, can I?). Before you start working on a guide, make sure it's either unique or better than guides that are already published on the site. "Better" can mean: more up-to-date, more comprehensive, better presented, etc. Just make sure that your guide isn't going to duplicate anyone else's, or be a worse version of something that's already out there - nothing will wrack up the bad comments and votes faster than that. Since guides can range in topic greatly, there's no right or wrong way to present the meat of a guide, aside from a giant wall of text.

As you start to build some familiarity and confidence with the BBCode, remember that a piece of text isn't limited to a single manipulation. But at the same time, don't go overboard either! Too much going on will overwhelm your readers, so make sure that color is used for a reason, and not just because you can. Pictures are good to break up text, as well as to highlight certain things like zones or gear, so try to integrate them into the guide too. Organize your thoughts and content in a logical way through the guide so that readers can follow along. If they get confused, they may give up and leave. Same thing too if the wall of text becomes daunting or the page gets cluttered.

I'll say this here and I'll repeat it at the end: Don't submit a guide for approval until you're done with the majority of work! If you're only partway done, one of two things can happen. At best, your guide will be put back into draft status by a moderator for you to be able to continue to work on quietly - no harm, no foul. At worst, it will get approved. Why is that such a bad thing? Well, because after your guide accrues five votes (not a particularly difficult feat), it will leave the top of the list where new guides are located and fall into line wherever its rating calls for it to fit. And if you submitted a partially complete guide, those votes aren't going to give many stars. This will put your guide very low on the list, and people will be less likely to view it. With less views, changing the rating of the guide will be extremely difficult, and no matter how awesome it is once you actually are done, you'll probably still be struggling with a 2.5-3 star rating because the initial votes are holding it back. If you absolutely must submit a guide prematurely, make sure you leave notes for viewers so they know:

that it's incomplete,

what is missing and will be included when it's done,

that you'll be finishing it soon.

Something like this can be sufficient, though more information over less is always preferred: THIS CONTENT IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.Return to Top

The Guide-Writing Page

The guide-writing page itself has several simple and common codes that you may want to use. These range from altering the visual appearance of text, to some basic formatting. Since the majority of these options are also available when leaving a comment on a page or posting on the forums, this is the coding that users are most familiar with on the site.

Tooltip

Use

Code

Example

Title

Creates a section heading that appears in the Table of Contents, if one is present.

\\

Title\\

Bold

Emboldens selected text.

\\Look at my bold text!\\

Look at my bold text!

Italic

Italicizes selected text.

\\Emphasis here.\\

Emphasis here.

Underline

Underlines selected text.

\\This could be important.\\

This could be important.

Strikethrough

Puts a line ("strike") through selected text.

\\Put an X through it!\\

Put an X through it!

Small

Shrinks selected text's size.

\\This is how goblins and gnomes talk.\\

This is how goblins and gnomes talk.

URL

Inserts a link but shows text. (The system assumes wowhead.com if you start after .com)

Link an Item, Item Set, NPC, Object, Quest, Spell, Zone, Faction, Pet, Achievement, Event, Class, Race, Skill, or Statistic quickly by only using the number in the page address.

*Note: Although the actual name of what was linked won't show up on the editing page, it will convert properly in the view mode,and even include the icon inline with the text (don't want the icon?use icon=false to remove it).*

Links allow an otherwise flat block of text to immediately become more useful. Describing a spell or skill can only go so far, and especially when it's not the focus of the guide, it becomes unnecessary. Giving the key components to be aware of in an ability and providing the link allows for readers of all skill levels to benefit. The more familiar people will use the guide as a refresher, while those who need further explanation can easily click on the link and check out more detailed explanations.

Manipulating the links with gems, reforges, and enchants allows for advanced gear suggestions to really make a point, or to better key in on what's being shown. Remember that the code for spells, quests, etc. is at the end of the page address. Whatever's before it (ie .com/spell=####) provides the type of link. Don't try to put spell for everything, or you may find that NPCs aren't linking to the right place!

Visual Aspects

Icons are small pictures placed in-line with text that can add depth to links, or be used on their own.

Tooltip

Use

Code

Example

Icon

Inserts a small, noninvasive icon in-line with text.

\\\\

Alignment

Choose which side of the text the icon will appear on.

*Note: Text must be inside the tags for this to apply,and the use of align=right switches the icon side.*

\\Leatherworking\\\\Skinning\\

LeatherworkingSkinning

Size

Alter the size of an icon to make it more or less prominent.

*Note: Use size= and large, medium, small, or tiny to change icon size.*

\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\

Difficulty

Insert an icon for Normal or Heroic instance difficulties.

*Note: Use preset= with boss or heroic to change the icon type.*

\\Regular Difficulty\\\\Heroic Mode\\

Regular DifficultyHeroic Mode

Using the Drop-Down Options to Pick Icons

Common Icons

The drop-down list (located above the text box) provides the icons for the playable Classes, Races, and Factions, as well as the learnable Professions and Secondary Skills for easy access. These icons are most commonly used, so their presence on the guide-writing page is highly beneficial.

Uncommon Icons

For icons not found in the drop-down list, the Other option (top of the list) allows players to type or paste the icon code into a pop-up.

Finding the code for an icon is simple: find a page with the desired icon, click on it, and then copy the text in the resultant pop-up. Pressing "OK" will enter the icon.

Quest Icons

Difficult to find, but highly useful, the quest icons providethe well known visuals to say "hey! this is a quest!"

*Note: start gives the exclamation point, while end gives the question mark. Add daily to change from yellow to blue.*

\\Start\\\\End\\\\Daily Start\\\\Daily End\\

StartEndDaily StartDaily End

Role

These icons are tricky if you don't know what to look for, but important in any discussion of parties & raids.

\\Tank\\\\Healer\\\\DPS\\

TankHealerDPS

Other

These icons are harder to find the code for, and as suchare listed here for ease of use.

Icons can be especially helpful when discussing spells, skills, and/or gear. In particular, when discussing boss fights or class abilities, the use of icons is a great way to make a wall of text less daunting. There's no need to put any text inside the tags, but doing so allows for the use of the align= tag, which has the options of left or right. Opt to put icons before or after text, whatever suits you best! (In practice, putting an icon before the text is preferred, although there are some situations where a user might choose to "frame" the text with an icon on both sides.)

With so many different types of currency, the icons associated with them is hugely beneficial. A cleaner display as well as automatic links for non-monetary currencies really brings things together. And when listing monetary amounts, is much nicer to read over than 51g 38s 46c!

There are a few different options for inserting images into a guide that come with alignment, sizing, and linking options. It's important to make sure you choose the right selection when writing a guide to get the most out of it. If possible, try to use your own screenshots or images, but if you don't, make sure you credit the source. *Images already published on the Wowhead site do not necessarily need to be given additional credit.*

Tooltip

Use

Code

Example

Screenshot

Insert a screenshot from the Wowhead database.

*Note: The id number will show up in the address bar after clicking on a screenshot. Use float= (with left, center, or right) to alter the screenshot alignment.*

\\

Picture

Insert an picture from a web resource.

*Note: To use an image from your computer, click on "Upload an image" above the text box and select the desired image to upload. Select the text in the resultant box and paste it into the guide where desired.

*Note: Unlike all other images, locating the id for a model is less easily found, as it is the id for the 3D model (displayID) and not the screenshot, npc, or item id themselves (itemID). Right click on the page and choose "Inspect element" or "View Source" to view the page's code, then locate the displayID information.

Use npc= or object= to display an image for the desired NPC or object. Use item= slot= to display items, where the slot number gives the item slot id number (see "Tell Me More about Images" for the codes). Use itemset= to insert a link to a particular item set, which will appear as an in-page pop-up of the model viewer. For itemsets, each item and its respective slot must be listed (ie. itemset=slot,item,slot,item where the item number is the displayID - confusing, I know!*

\\

or

\\

or

Manipulating Images

Border

Remove the border around the image.

*Note: Use border=0 to remove the border around the image.*

\\

Size

Change the size of the image.

*Note: Use width= and height= to manipulate the size (where the number is the pixel count) of the image. To resize screenshots from the database, click on the screenshot image, then on "Original" to be redirected to the url for the image.*

\\

Alignment

Change how the image is aligned in the space.

*Note: Use float= (with left, center, or right) to alter the alignment of the image. The text will automatically wrap around the image (left or right) or align below it (center).*

If the map image or pins aren't showing up, it's likely due to a phasing issue. Try inserting _1 or _2 after the zone code to fix this. If the pins are in the right place, but the map is incorrect, check that the zone code is correct or change floors by adding -# after the zone code.Use the url= option to add an automatic link to a pin, or insert text between the pin tags to give it a tooltip.

Organizing Information

Togglers, tabs, and tables are some of the most complex bits of code a guide writer will encounter, but they're not so imposing once the basics of each are explained.

TogglersThe code for Togglers is fairly basic:

Use

Code

Example

To hide content from view temporarily, but allow users to access it quickly via a drop-down system.

\\Name of Toggler\\\\Toggler content\\

Name of Toggler

Toggler content

Tell Me More about Togglers

First, the toggler must be given an ID number unique to the guide, and a name. The use of hidden in both the toggler and div tags denotes that the toggler will start closed.Inside of the div tags fits the toggler content, which is given the same ID number as the toggler itself.

Use \\ or \\ at the end of a toggler's code to make them stack vertically, rather than appear across a line of text until opened.

To organize related content with headingsto allow for switching between bulk content.

\\\\Tab 1 content\\\\Tab 2 content\\\\

Tab 1 content

Tab 2 content

Tell Me More about Tabs

First, the name of the group of tabs must be given in \\, and must be unique to the guide. Each tab should begin with \\ and end with \\. To add a visual characteristic to each tab, use icons from either the icon drop-down or the database. Remove the icon= component if icons are not desired.Any content that should appear in the tab should be placed inside of the tab tags.When the set of tabs is complete (ie. there are as many tabs as desired), close with the \\ tag.

TablesTables are the most complex of these organizational types of code:

Use

Code

Example

To organize material into a tabular format as a grid or a beveled table.

\\\\\\\\Column 1 Title\\\\

\\

\\Column 2 Title\\\\

\\

\\Column 3 Title\\\\

\\

\\

\\

Column 1, row 1 content\\

\\

Column 2, row 1 content\\

\\

Column 3, row 1 content\\

\\

\\

\\

Column 1, row 2 content\\

\\

Column 2, row 2 content\\

\\

Column 3, row 2 content\\

\\

\\

Column 1 Title

Column 2 Title

Column 3 Title

Column 1, row 1 content

Column 2, row 1 content

Column 3, row 1 content

Column 1, row 2 content

Column 2, row 2 content

Column 3, row 2 content

But wait! You can change a lot of things in a table. Let's look at how to manipulate the different aspects of a table.

Name

Explanation / Code

Example

Table Manipulations

Table Width

Change the percentage given after width= to increase or decrease a table's width across the space.

*Note: Use #px instead of #% to give the value in pixels.*

This is a 75% table.

It takes up 75% of the space allowed.

Allowed space is determined by whatever borders are closest, in this case, the walls of the cell for the table it's been placed into.

Grid

Cell Spacing

Cell Padding

Use class=grid to make rows highlight as the mouse cursor moves over them.

In general, leave these two values to the presets.Change the cell spacing by changing the number given after cellspacing= for tighter or looser fits.

Change the cell padding by changing the number given after cellpadding= for tighter or looser fits.

This is a gridded table.

It appears flat, but see how a row highlights when your cursor moves over it?

Gridded tables can be beneficial, but sometimes not very useful. For instance, if you organize by columns rather than rows, highlighting by row is useless.

Text Alignment

Vertical Alignment

Horizontal Alignment

To change the vertical alignment of a cell, use valign=and insert top, middle, or bottom as desired.

To change the horizontal alignment of a cell, use align=and insert left, center, or right as desired.

This text is at the top and to the left.

This text is in the middle and centered.

This text is at the bottom and to the right.

Column Span

Row Span

Insert colspan=# to define the number of columns a cell should span across in the table.Without defining, colspan will automatically set to 1.

Insert rowspan=# to define the number of rows a cell should span in the table.Without defining, rowspan will automatically set to 1.

This cell spans two rows.

It stays in one column.

This cell spans three rowsand is automatically aligned in the middle of the cell (vertically).

But the next row is absorbed into it.

This cell takes up two columns, and spreads across the width of the table, but not across it entirely since the table is three columns wide.

This cell takes up three columns, and spreads across the width of the table.

Tell Me More about Tables

First, the table must be opened with a variation of \\

. In this format, a table appears raised with beveled edges.Manipulating the size of the table is done by changing the width= and can be done either in percentage (100%), as shown throughout the guide, or by pixels (10000px). Inserting class=grid causes the table to become flat, but rows become highlighted as the mouse cursor moves over them.Each row is denoted by the tr tags. Each cell is denoted by the td tags. The number of columns will depend on the number of td tags within each row.The cell content should be placed inside of the td tags. Content can be vertically (valign=) or horizontally (align=) aligned within each cell. Additionally, cells can span columns (colspan=) and rows (rowspan=) as desired.Lastly, the table must be closed by \\

Ending a Guide

A Summary of what was in the guide, or key points is definitely a plus. While not required, guides that do so remind readers what the goal of the guide is, and even allows for another plug to comment and/or vote.

This is also the time for Acknowledgements. If you used any resources extensively, give them credit! It's still your guide, but show respect to the people and/or websites that helped you get your guide done properly. Images from an external source should either be credited here, or as a small note under the image itself. Either way, don't plagiarize or hog all the glory.

Advanced Material

I'm not suggesting that these will work for everyone, but for some, they may be perfect or close enough. From basic to advanced techniques, working with code is an acquired skill.

Specialized Formats

Maybe it's not that you don't know BBCode - you may know it very well. But here are some ways to really take a guide to the next level with formatting. Remember, get creative. And if you're specifically looking for something that isn't here, or have some code that you've already worked out and don't see? Email wow.guide.writer@gmail.com or post in the comments to see it added in.

Tooltip

Use

Code

Example

Bundling Text

Align text on the page more easily by adding the \\ tags. Especially useful when paired with aligning images.

\\\\

Types of Collectors\\

\\

Achievements\\

Mounts\\

Companions\\

Hunter Pets\\

Recipes\\

Transmog Gear\\

Rare / Odd Items\\

\\

Types of Collectors

Achievements

Mounts

Companions

Hunter Pets

Recipes

Transmog Gear

Rare / Odd Items

Icons in Headers

Headings and subsections that are only text can be drab, so frame with icons to make them pop. Two options: resize an icon, or use an icon as an image.

*Note: Use size= and large, medium, small, or tiny to make the icons stand out as much or as little as you want!*

\\\\\\

Heal Me\\

or

\\\\

Feed Me\\

Heal Me

or

Feed Me

Annotated Tooltips

Provide commentary on an ability (real or fake) within the tooltip,or use for alongside comparisons.

*Note: Change the width of the entire bar by altering the initial width (here shown as 300px). Use rep, ach, green, yellow, or red as the code with progressbar-code to denote the type of bar, (read: color) and alter the percent as desired. Include tooltips, maps, or mouseover text when a cursor is moved over the progress bar itself.*

Pre-Made Guide Components

Maybe you're not so good at code, and sorta understand but really don't want to make the whole thing yourself. That's fine. It shouldn't be the thing stopping you from writing a guide, and hopefully this will save you from a giant mess of a guide. Here are a few pre-made, commonly used components of a guide for your use. And if you're specifically looking for something that isn't here, email wow.guide.writer@gmail.com or post in the comments to see it added in.Pre-Made Table (2-Column)

Column 1 Title

Column 2 Title

Column 1 content, row 1

Column 2 content, row 1

Column 1 content, row 2

Column 2 content, row 2

Full table width content, row 3

Column 1 content, row 4

Column 2 content, row 4

*Remember: Use align=left, align=center, or align=right to align text horizontally, while valign=top, valign=middle, and valign=bottom align text vertically. Change the width percentage to fill up a different percentage of the screen width. Change colspan to manipulate how many columns a particular row uses, and rowspan to alter how many rows a particular column uses.*

\\\\\\\\Column 1 Title\\\\

\\

\\Column 2 Title\\\\

\\

\\

\\

Column 1 content, row 1\\

\\

Column 2 content, row 1\\

\\

\\

\\

Column 1 content, row 2\\

\\

Column 2 content, row 2\\

\\

\\

\\

Full table width content, row 3\\

\\

\\

\\

Column 1 content, row 4\\

\\

Column 2 content, row 4\\

\\

\\

*Remember:

To add another row with two columns, use:\\

\\Column 1 content, extra row\\\\

Column 2 content, extra row\\

\\

To add another row with one column, use:\\

\\

Full table width content, extra row\\

\\

Pre-Made Table (3-Column)

Column 1 Title

Column 2 Title

Column 3 Title

Column 1 content, row 1

Column 2 content, row 1

Column 3 content, row 1

Full table width content

Column 1 content, row 2

Column 2 content, row 2

Column 3 content, row 2

Column 1 content, row 3

Column 2 content, row 3

Column 3 content, row 3

*Remember: Use align=left, align=center, or align=right to align text horizontally, while valign=top, valign=middle, and valign=bottom align text vertically. Change the width percentage to fill up a different percentage of the screen width. Change colspan to manipulate how many columns a particular row uses, and rowspan to alter how many rows a particular column uses.*

*Remember: Use align=left, align=center, or align=right to align text horizontally, while valign=top, valign=middle, and valign=bottom align text vertically. Change the width percentage to fill up a different percentage of the screen width. Change colspan to manipulate how many columns a particular row uses, and rowspan to alter how many rows a particular column uses.*

Final Thoughts

All guide writers put in a lot of time and effort into creating a guide and getting it published. But the work shouldn't stop there! Check your guide daily (or every time you see a new comment has been posted to the guide, at the very least) to see what others are saying. Perhaps they've made a quick suggestion, or just come to praise your guide. Either way, it's useful to go back to the guide post-publication regularly and not abandon it.

I said this before and I'm saying it again: Don't submit a guide for approval until you're done with the majority of work! A partially complete guide submitted for approval has one of two options. The best scenario has your guide put back into draft status by a moderator for you to continue to work on quietly. The worst situation is for it to be approved. After a guide accrues five votes (not a difficult feat), it will leave the top of the list where new guides are located and fit wherever its rating places it. If you submitted a partially complete guide, those votes aren't going to be very good. This will put your guide very low on the list, and people will be less likely to view it. With less views, changing the rating of the guide will be extremely difficult, and no matter how awesome it is once you actually are done, you'll probably still be struggling with a 2.5-3 star rating because of the initial votes holding it back. Use something like this if you do end up submitting a guide prematurely, though more information over less is always preferred: THIS CONTENT IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

A reminder of the key aspects to a guide:

Spelling and Grammar. Bad spelling decreases a guide's value quickly. Run a spell-check before you submit, and ask a friend to read through your guide to make sure things make sense.

Clarity. Define acronyms as soon as you use them - no matter how familiar you are with them, you can't guarantee your readers are too. If people don't understand what you're referring to, they'll stop reading. Make sure your guide title and the description match with what's actually in the guide.

The Database. Utilize links to spells, skills, NPCs, etc. in Wowhead to make sure your guide is as complete and comprehensive as possible.

Formatting. Avoid a wall of text! Use the BBCode, that's what it's here for.

Information. Research the content for your guide, either by playing a class to learn it in & out, repeatedly running instances, or by looking things up on Wowhead or other sites. Know what you're presenting.

Imagination! Mix and match codes. If you're thinking of playing around with formatting, make a separate draft guide for coding purposes. The risk to your actual guides decreases, and you can pull pieces in and out of a guide to work on things separately. Once you've got things how you like them, just paste it back into the real guide!

Lastly, I strongly advise a guide writer keep an up-to-date .txt copy of each guide or draft. There's no "undo" button on the Guide Writing page, and if you've made a lot of changes since the last save and then accidentally highlight and delete a lot of text instead of a small amount, it can feel debilitating. I've done it, and I'm sure others have too. And now I keep backups for that exact reason.

About the Author

I'm a Horde-only player with spy Alliance characters for completeness of guides and playing.

I check on all my guides at least once a day for new feedback, and try to keep them up-to-date and respond to any suggestions I receive on them. The full list of my guides to date can be found in the Guides tab on my profile page.

Feel free to send an email to SquireKel at WoW.Guide.Writer@gmail.com for help with your own guide, or to suggest a topic if you've been hoping to see one!

Acknowledgments

A great deal of thanks is owed to asakawa for the original BBCode forum thread, which lists all of the code available and provides examples. Without that thread, I never would have endeavored to write a single guide.

I hope this helps demystify BBCode, and good luck writing a guide!

Comments

Comment by karatechop

Great guide! 5 stars ^-^

Edit: Thanks very much for "Linking Content" "Using the "More Drop-Down Menu"

it has made my "in progress" guide much cleaner ^-^

Comment by TheReal

Just wow. What an excellent write-up! I can't find anything right away that I would insist onsuggest changing, and your content and examples are top-notch. 6 out of 5.

Comment by lonewolfe31705

I want to compliment you on an extremely detailed and well presented guide. It has more information than the average person could want, but everyone needs. I personally bookmarked it to read/use at my leisure.

You sir, win the internet with this one.

Comment by Ladria

A guide on how to write guides! Brilliant! Will defo use this once I can figure what is worth spending time on writing a guide for! :)

P.S A guide on how to write a guide - it made my head go:

Yo, dawg! I heard you like guides, so I wrote a guide on how to write a guide, so you can write a guide while you read my guide!

*Trollolol*

Comment by Zoeteklem

SquireKel,I forgot to give you props for this guide. The layout to the guide is well developed, expansive and easy to understand. I used this for my guide while writing it but never gave you any acknowledgement.

No doubt this will be handy in the future for writing guides and I strongly endorse it before starting for the first time for anyone.

Thank you again so much!

Comment by ChacKan

Awesome guide! Used it for my own!

5/5-I have one question, though. When you're writing your table of contents, I see there are subsections within it? Like, some are pushed more to the right to indicate that it is included in the section above it. I can't figure out how to do that, so if you understand what I mean, could you please clear it up for me? Thanks.

Comment by Oathark

OH MY GAWSH WUT THE FRIK I CANT FIGUIRE OUT THIS THING AND ITS WEEEEELY HOLDING BACK MY GUIDE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! WHYYYY! I HAVVE SPENT WEEKS TRYING TO GET IT TO WERK!1111

/reads guide....

/tries it out

Thank you sooooooo much!

P.S i rated your guide 5 stars :D

Comment by woodman231

Excellent Guide.

Quick question on Icon. Do you know if there is an icon for the roles you can select in the Dungeon / Raid Finder. I have been looking for a quick "Tank / Shield", "Healer (Cross with a Circle)", "Damage / Sword" type of an icon and I'm not sure what to use or if there even is one. Please let me know.

Comment by dragonsaber12

Wow......wonderful guide. I'm speechless, I can't think of anything that comes to mind to change. I am thinking of working on a detailed guide to address Being a Druid Tank and Questing DPS. I think i'll definately be referancing this guide for my own. Definately top notch, 5 of 5 stars!

~ dragonsaberDruid Tank

Comment by Finalkiss

Thank you for your comment on my guide referring me to this one, and thank you for making this guide. The changes I've made are immense and I've only touched the tip of the iceberg with what you have here.

Comment by Twizelbang

Somebody call 9-1-1: The Guide System's Vitals are Falling!

This made me "Giggle" :)

------

Amazing guide, this will come in rather handy i think :)

I really like the "Return to Top", feature.

Makes navigation loads faster. I didn't notice it at first, i was thinking "damn, my scroll button is working over-time" ...Silly me..haha

I might even copy paste it to my Profile page, so i don't have to look for this guide. Mmm.. or does wow.head have a "Tab" for saving guides ?

Comment by Faranae

I just wanted to say thank you so much for writing this up. I've been wanting to make a pacifist guide to commemorate hitting 85 on mine as well as to cap off my WoW "career", and couldn't for the life of me figure out most of the formatting stuff since it's not a simple toggle in the guide editor.

This guide is simply fabulous!

Comment by Eldara98

This guide is really quite fantastic! The BBCode is pretty similar to HTML, unless I have learnt HTML wrong LOL :P Although I have no ideas for a guide I would 1) actually write and 2) like enough to post, this guide will certainly be a point of constant reference if/when I do! Thanks again!

Comment by Xyexs

Hey, thanks! can i get a more deep explanaition of tabs? (ranked your guide 5)

Comment by kissashark

I just wrote my first guide and found the information in here simply invaluable. There's no way I could have added the pictures, tables, mouse over maps, icons, grids, etc to the guide that I wrote without the organized & understandable information in this guide. Thank you! You saved many a head-bashing and probably several walls. :)

Comment by Xyexs

So how would i make the tables without border? Answers would be greatly appreciated!EDIT: found it! add "class=grid"

Comment by Emmaleah

Question about maps.

I have found that -1 is the map number for all of azoroth, is there a way to put pins on that map? I experimented a bit, but the pins didnt show up, How would you get the coords other than x,y,z (zone)?

This would be useful for laying out routes for world events, etc.(my personal use is to figure out the best way to go to all the pet battles with out backtracking so much.)

Comment by slaymordor

awsome guide it really helps people out alot

i cannot imagine what time it took to make it but lemme tell ya it was all worth it.

/cheer /thank

Comment by Drahken

I'm not sure why I never left a comment here last year when I was writing my own guide, But I meant to. Your guide was a tremendous help in writing mine. I kept this open in a tab for about a month so I could keep referencing it. Getting my tabs and tables the way I wanted them was a real &*!@#, and it's pretty much completely thanks to you that I got it.

Comment by Mystiey

THANK YOU!

This guide makes.. well.. MY guide creation go that much smoother.

That's what I call a professional guide :P

10 out of 5 stars!

Comment by Jimbofult

WoW! Thanks for giving me the information that I needed to write my first guide. I used the pre-set tables a LOT.

I would not have known where to start without your guide. Your guide has been open in a browser tab for the last few days while I tried to write my first guide. My computer will not know what to do now when I close that browser tab.

Comment by Kemaria

Wow, this is amazing. I slaved over my own guide through trial and error until I'd figured out stuff like TOC, maps with pinmarks on them, tabs, etc.... sure wish I'd seen this handy dandy guide first! Would have saved me a ton of trouble. :)

I think this guide should be linked on the guide writing page so people new to writing guides don't miss it like I did. The link provided now to the compendium of useful tags is very handy, too, but as a forum thread, it just can't go into as much detail as a full-blown guide like this can.

Comment by Chloebell1711

This is so helpful! Thank you! 5/5

Comment by Lynkeus

Very, very concrete and complete guide. Thanks.

Comment by pikagod

Hey just wanted to say I'm working on a guide of my own (just started yesterday, its quite a large one so it might be a while) and noticed something I wanted to mention while reading your guide. You say in one part:"There's no "undo" button on the Guide Writing page..." But there is. If you right click in the text box in a white space, not where the text is, in the menu that shows up the very first option listed is "undo". I have checked in the comodo, firefox, and internet explorer browsers so I don't think its unique to just one. There is even a "redo" button right after! It has saved me many a headache so far!

And also, amazing guide. This has been beyond helpful in getting my own guide off the ground. Thank you, so much :)

Also this works on comments as well, just fyi :)

Comment by Lyste

5/5, will help many in the present and the future Wowhead.

Comment by Runawaynow

How many guides did you create to get guide=911 for the url? Or did you decide to create this guide because you had guide=911?

Either way, well done! I found this by thinking "wonder if anyone has made a guide on all the existing BBC code available to guide-makers" and here I am :)

Comment by Nirnaeth101

Can't seem to find how to make pins as Quest icons either, or how the lovely roll overs happen without a lot of hard work....

Comment by refactor

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this guide! It was very very helpful, and was a great reference for me as I just completed my first guide.

One quick question (hope you still check these comments): how does one add a banner image to the guide? By this, I mean the image that shows up when you are in the guide gallery. Some have an image behind the title. I can't seem to find the answer, unless I'm looking in the wrong places or for the wrong keywords. Thanks again!

Comment by Beetle01

Amazing guide!5/5 stars.

Comment by cUnAzeroth

This is an EXCELLENT guide. Thank you for posting this. I do have one question. I am still a little bit puzzled how to change the color of my text. I read the line about color but it references a "drop down menu" and I can't seem to locate that? Any help from anyone?

Comment by darbobo

great guide, thank you

Comment by Deihjan

Is it possible to get expansion icons addressed? Also making tables and toggles etc. looking neat and not dishevelled, as I'm having issues getting everything to not look like a hurricane just went through the finished text.

This would be incredibly helpful as I already have trouble focusing on the raw guide I'm currently writing, so seeing the finished product being neat and tidy would help calm my urge to just flip a table and leave :D

Comment by moosandra

Are tabs not meant work on profiles? I tried it (and even copied tab examples directly) to test and they don't seem to work.

Comment by Savil

Fantastic guide SquireKel! I've been using it a lot for my guide in-progress.

I have a question for you about image re-sizing and alignment.

At the very beginning of your guide, you have an image that coexists really well with your toc, and I'm having trouble mimicking it! I've tried playing around with some things, but I can't get them to play nice and stay align with each other! Any help! :D

Comment by Doloria

I'd like to create a tooltip for a weapon with an enchant and weapon chain. However the enchants (scroll format) are "items" and the weapon chain is an "item".

An icon I'd like to see is the WoWWiki neutral symbol because it's simpler, brighter and has better recognition. (If you right click on the symbol and "Save Link As" it can be saved as a *.png -- but you have to remove the background.)

Comment by Paragon1682

I can't seem to figure out, or find an answer for anywhere, how to add a picture to the title line. When you're browsing the big list of guides, the majority of them have pictures behind the title name and I have no idea if this is even done by the author, or how to do it, if so.

This guide was a great help putting together my prot warrior guide (still in progress) :D

Comment by Stompa

I came here to learn how to submit a guide; turns out that's one tiny bit of information I can't find here. What makes a guide different from a detailed comment, and how/where do I submit my writing to be approved as a "Guide"? Where is this "Guide Writing Page" you refer to?

To those with the same question, I eventually found it by clicking on the "Guides" menu in the site navbar, and going to the category I was interested in. There's a small red box beside the category title that says "Write New Guide" which brings you to the "Create New Guide" page. I hope the OP updates this with the link though, the rest of the guide is amazing!

Comment by gabluvs

this helps....but--how do you put equipment sets on there? would it be the same if you print the screen with the set, crop it, and paste it on there? because my guide is very good, it just needs pictures, which i don't know why, it doesn't put the pictures on the guide...and their wow screenshots!

Comment by gabluvs

With images: how do you insert a equipment set? like to show a person holding/wearing something, not the weapon itself

Comment by heixia

AMAZING guide! If I could rate it 6 stars I would! Thank you so much!

Comment by heixia

How do you do a spell icon next to the link of the item? is it ?

Comment by heixia

I want to have then text next to the box. It works except that the isn't in clear white thick writing and the little squares that are usually next to the link in the are about an inch apart from the words. How do i get this to work?

Comment by heixia

I actually found that for the you could just use

Heading

and

Heading

instead of

Heading

and

Heading

.

Comment by heixia

How do I make a map with the spawn points of a certain battle pet? I want that when you mouse over the pins it shows the coordinates.

Comment by heixia

I'm sorry to bug you with so many questions but how do I have the color of the Item and the icon at the same time?

Comment by gabluvs

ok so here's my guide so far:as you see the warrior death knight and pally logo's are stacked on top of each other; my original code was:

their all inline with each other, but how do i make the logos themself horizontal with each other, not horizontal in a table?

**Note** with the warlock tab it looks professional.. how do I do that to all the other tabs? Original code for warlock sets:

Warlock

Warlocks are well--the male terminology is correct; a warlock is a male wicken (witch) and the females are witches (Fun fact of the day your welcome). They seem to rock purple's, red's and black's!

Comment by TheDeathwing

Comment by ImKronos

This guide has helped me tons in writing my first guide. I don't know what I would have done without it!

Comment by Kaliopae

Amazing guide!

Just one issue I found: map phases don't seem to be working. Your Lost Isle maps aren't showing up, and in my guide I can't seem to get the Mount Hyjal map (which apparently has phases) to display. Help?

Comment by gabluvs

question: How do you insert transmog sets you've made on wowhead?

Comment by Obtains

Comment by Kittay

Is it somehow possible to format the bullets of the unordered lists? Such as the hearts in this guide?

Comment by albinoette

I noticed in my guide today that the toc=false tag is NOT working in my headers. It appears not to be working in your headers as of today, either. So where you had:

Do you know why the toc=false tag might not be working and any ways to possibly resolve it? Thanks!

Comment by jjanchan

I absolutely LOVE this guide! I use it tons to format my own guides, and even some comments - and it's really been a huge asset! Thanks for the attention to detail and hard work put into this.

I few things I had questions about (I will likely update this post with further questions that come up, if that's ok!)

Is there a way to use colours other than the preset ones that Wowhead gives us in the dropdown menu?

Is it possible to add more than 2 tooltips on mouseover (with regards to your example of annotated tooltips)

Is there any way to change the background colour of table cells?

I LOVE the minimap tooltip feature, which works in comments as well as guides. Is there a way to specify which map it will show, if there is an NPC that appears in more than one zone? For example:Izzy Hollyfizzle - appears in both Alliance and Horde garrisons, but mousing over it only shows the Alliance map.

Is there a way to show a full frame 3D model in your guide, as it appears on a Wowhead NPC page for example? I used the tag with an NPC Display ID in my guide, but it appears as a stationary image, although clicking it brings up the 3D model.

Is there a way to change the size of an item in tags?

Any reason why icons I've put on my tabs are not showing up? Doesn't seem to matter what icon I try and use.

Any tag that will allow you to show a modified version of a spell (e.g. showing the Heroic or Challenge mode difficulty version of Stone Bolt)?

EDIT: As an addendum to my own post (and possible something you may consider adding to your guide at some point) you can use the "img=putyourimageurlhere.com/picture.jpg" within the tag to put a picture of your choice as a placeholder for a 3D model (it needs to be edited to the size and dimensions you want)

This would make the complete tag read:

Comment by Kittay

Hello again! I seem to have a new problem, but I'm not sure this is the right place to ask.

I would like to have a map over the entire Pandaria, such as this one but I can't seem to find a zone tag for Pandaria or any other world zone alone, only the sub-regions. Do you know if these kind of zone tags exist?

Since I forgot to write it in my last comment, I also want to thank you for this outstanding guide. It helps me a lot. :)

Comment by Illidana

I can't get the tabs to show :( I copied and pasted the premade code below but it just won't show as in the Tab Appearance.

Tab 1 content

Tab 2 content

Comment by Dayani

Dear SquireKel,

I love you dearly. This is the best guide in the universe.

A couple of questions now that I've beat my head against the guide code for a few hours and failed to discover the answers:

1. Is it still possible to get expansion placard images to show up? The links in the "Icons > Other" section aren't working for me, displaying broken images. I've looked at e.g. the list of Dungeon zones, where there are plenty of working expansion placards, but the source code for that page doesn't show me what the images' names are.

2. Is it possible to make a model appear when hovering over a link? Like for example, I'm discussing Portal Guardian and want players to be able to mouseover that link to see a model. Alternatively a screenshot would suffice, if you know of a way to do that.

Thanks for helping so many people create awesome guides! <3

Comment by heixia

I want to have something like a small tooltip next to an item so when you mouse over the tooltip a picture of the model for the item comes up. How would I do this? It's kind of like in your barber shop guide where if you mouse over one of the pictures another one appears from a different angle. Please help, thanks.

Comment by Gnorma

The guide is terrific. However, I have one suggestion for all authors. DO NOT use acronyms or lingo/jargon that is not readily understood by non-gamers. For instance, "Proc" is widely used but many folks, myself included, have no clue what this means. I understand that there is a degree of assumed knowledge that is expected from users of these guides. My take is, do not assume everyone (especially foreign language speakers) will understand your techno-gamer reference-speak. This game is frustrating and complicated enough without sending readers to specialized dictionaries and/or the beyond embarrassing necessity of begging for help from fifth graders who do understand all things gaming!

Comment by PallyDog

*Note: Although the actual name of what was linked won'tshow up on the editing page, it will convert properlyin the view mode,and even include the iconinline with the text (don't want the icon?use icon=false to remove it).*